Bulgarian Dance

Folk Dances in Bulgaria Today

Folk dances in Bulgaria divide into four groups:

1. Village groups, who perform dances only from their own village
2. Amateur performing groups, who were formed in town during the communist regime
3. Professional performing groups, who dance in larger cities and perform more complex choreographies and have traveled abroad quite extensively
4. Social dance, which involves dancing at social gatherings, such as weddings, etc.

General characteristics of Bulgarian dances:

1. Northern style, which is mainly mixed with similar styles for men and women and danced with an upright body carriage, with weight over the balls of the feet which allows the dancer to perform fast footwork with high knee lifts and various crossing steps similar to those found in dances from southern Romania
2. Dobrudja style, which is danced with their knees always bent and their backs hollow
3. Trakia style, which is danced with relaxed knees, steps taken onto the whole foot and with the body weight centered over the feet
4. Rhodopes style, in which men and women dance separately, the dances are heavy, with small steps and low hops using the whole foot. Hands are joined in low or "W" hold
5. Shopluck style, which is the hardest style to learn due to the speed of the dances and the amount of steps involved. Dances are usually performed in short lines, with belt hold or crossed hand hold
6. Pirin (Macedonia) style, in which men and women usually dance separately and if they take part in the same dance the women dance at the rear of the line with a handkerchief held between the last man and the first woman